sodomy

First recorded in 1250–1300; Middle English sodomie, from Old French; see Sodom, -y³

The term sodomy comes from the Latin phrase peccatum Sodomiticum, “the sin of Sodom,” and frequently meant anal sex between men, referencing the story of Sodom and Gomorrah in Genesis 19. However, the term sodomy has also often been used in laws criminalizing any kind of sexual contact that was seen as unnatural. In practice, this could mean any kind of sex that was not procreative, including oral sex and anal sex between a heterosexual couple, any kind of sex between two people of the same gender, and sex with non-human animals (sometimes called bestiality ).
In more recent legal use, sodomy laws usually criminalized oral and anal sex. These laws were often used to target homosexual sexual expression of all kinds, serving as tools for discrimination against nonheterosexual, noncisgender people. The landmark 2003 Supreme Court decision Lawrence v. Texas ruled that sodomy laws were unconstitutional in the United States.